


As Schoolboys From Their Books

by floweringjudas (manipulant)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First Time, Historical, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-28 06:42:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manipulant/pseuds/floweringjudas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Expelled Durmstrang student and former Hogwarts Head Boy form unlikely friendship. Hijinx of the sexy variety ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Schoolboys From Their Books

**Author's Note:**

> I may have played fast and loose with the actual date of Albus Dumbledore's birthday. And by "may have" I mean "definitely."

Albus quickened his pace to his family's garden, holding the fence open for Gellert before latching it behind them and casting the usual Imperturbable charms. "You know I'd like to, but there'd be no one here to look after Ariana, and - "

"Oh, hang Ariana," Gellert huffed, and hastily began apologising with his next breath, at Albus's darkening expression. "Well, not _hang_ , of course, but you might have your godforsaken _brother_ look after her for an evening. Martina Mugwort is only giving the lecture for the one evening, and you _promised_ you'd show me Hogsmeade."

Albus Dumbledore gave the boy before him a longsuffering look, and sighed as he ran spidery fingers through his red hair. "As you promised you'd help me muck out the thestral stables last Saturday?" he asked, wincing as his hand caught at a snarl. He leant against an obliging fencepost, beginning to pick obsessively through the knot, pulling individual strands free.

"That's not fair, I only said I'd think about it," Grindelwald replied evenly, rolling his eyes as he cast a wandless hair-smoothing charm on Albus's stupid, pretty hair. "I have a very slight build," he added for effect, a few seconds later.

Behind them, the late afternoon sun was casting long shadows onto the snowy grounds of the gardens. On the other side of the Dumbledores' fence, outcroppings of weathered gravestones sprang up from the snow like toadstools, still capped in white. The church lay beyond, dark and still.

Gellert squinted over the rows of headstones, frowning at the absence of snow on Kendra Dumbledore's garish monument, and at the bits of pine garland he could see still draped around a marble cherub's head. Grief in England was an exercise in society-sanctioned poor taste, he decided. "And to add insult to already egregious injury, those tickets were meant to be part of your birthday gift," he said, in a voice deceptively light as he reached to brush nonexistent snow off Albus's cloak.

"Were they."

Gellert didn't raise his glance, but did crow inwardly at the note of guilt in Albus's voice. "Mm. You know, Miss Mugwort is rumoured to be a descendant of the Peverells. She might know something about the wand."

"Rather a self-serving birthday gift," the older boy murmured. "And I doubt she'd fancy answering questions about childrens' stories at the end of her lecture."

Peeved, Gellert sucked his teeth and gave Albus's arm a pinch, settling in beside him against the fence, leaning a hip on the cold wood. "It's not _my_ fault you and I have the same interests. And it's for the greater good."

"The same interests," Albus repeated in a dull, flat voice.

Gellert cringed, and pinched Albus's arm again - the rhetorical statements had been increasing in frequency and alarm, ever since Christmas. "For the greater _good_ ," he said again.

Beside him Albus exhaled, and drew his arms tight around his chest, ostensibly to protect himself from being pinched again. The sun was sinking quickly behind them, the sky going pink and red and brilliant as the light began to die. "The more you say that, the more it becomes transparent that it means 'for _your_ greater good'." He sounded amused, but tired. Gellert laughed a little, and rested his chin on Albus's shoulder.

"Well, my greater good is the _greatest_ good," he said blithely. "And you're looking peaky. A night among your peers instead of old books might put a bit of colour back into your cheeks."

"Oh, but I don't _have_ peers," Albus sighed mock-regretfully. "Admirers and well-wishers, yes."

"Quite right, I'd forgot about that," Gellert smirked, reaching a hand up to hook onto Albus's arms, drag him down a tiny bit. "I'm afraid you'll have to make do with me."

There was a small pause as both boys mulled over both their words, and then Albus laid his cheek on Gellert's fair hair. His breath was warm as it ghosted over the younger boy's ear, and Gellert barely suppressed a shiver. "I suppose I could," Albus mumbled, turning his head, his lips against wild blond hair.

Gellert pulled back with a jerk, searching his face suspiciously, unnerved by his response. Albus's eyebrows were rather higher than they normally were, but his expression was otherwise devoid of guilt. "...Albus," Gellert began warningly, but he was cut short by Ariana coming out of the back door of the house, searching for her brother now that the sun had set.

"No need to worry yourself, Gellert," Albus said as he pushed himself off the fence, and Gellert felt the loss of comfort and warmth of the other boy's body immediately. "Will you stay for dinner?" Albus asked, barely turning to address the other boy at all. Gellert scowled and shoved his hands deep into his cloak pockets and trudged along behind him, making footprints in the already-flattened snow, where Albus had walked a moment before. His aunty was a terrible cook and it was, after all, Albus's birthday, Gellert reasoned with himself as he set off behind him. And Ariana, at least, always seemed pleased to see him.

 

 

***

 

 

"Of all the days for you to be born," Gellert mused, laughing a little as he watched Albus help Ariana with her cleaning spells. He craned to see over the back of the sofa a bit better, and gave them both a smile and a wink (flustered, Ariana lost her focus and accidentally shattered a pair of plates in the sink). He watched, amused, as a very thin-lipped Albus sent Ariana to practise her alphabet upstairs.

"I'm sorry if it doesn't suit you, but as I recall I didn't have much of a say in the matter," Albus said mildly, casting a series of hasty charms that removed the broken glass from the sink and finished scouring the rest of the dishes. Unrolling the fabric of his shirtsleeves back down his arms, Albus walked into the living room and perched on the other end of the sofa, two feet away from where Gellert was lounging.

"Saint Valentine's Day," the boy laughed, partly in retaliation for Albus sitting so far away. "I suppose it was very hard on your parents, always being expected to have a party for you and no time for themselves."

"No, after we left Mould-on-the-Wold for this place, I begged Mother not to bother. There weren't many children my age in the village anyway. ...And, of course, Father had already gone," Albus murmured, almost an afterthought. "Perhaps I should have asked for a party, it might have proved a distraction for her." He frowned and traced a finger over the design in the sofa, for once looking impossibly young, as he worried.

Daunted, Gellert nonetheless soldiered on. "And, of course, an insensitive lover might give you one gift for both occasions. You're missing out on quite a haul."

Albus rolled his eyes, and reached up to remove his glasses. He began to clean them with the edge of his shirt, absentmindedly. "Yes, well, I tend to doubt the existence of such a person, be they insensitive or not. But there is always the possibility that one gift would be enough to equal 'quite a haul'."

"Really?" Gellert asked sceptically, shifting on the sofa to face him. "What sort of gift would that be? And _don't_ say the Elder Wand or the Cloak of Invisibility or the Stone, that's cheating."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Albus assured him, using wandless magic to stoke the fire in front of them as he settled his eyeglasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "...Mugwort's lecture is in Hogsmeade, you say?"

" _Albus_ ," Gellert huffed, flouncing a bit. "It _is_ , and I'm taking that to mean you'll come with me, but don't try to change the subject. What sort of gift were you imagining?" There was an anticipatory gnawing in his stomach that the younger boy couldn't quite explain, as he waited for an answer.

There was another tiny pause. "...I've always very much enjoyed a pair of warm socks."

Gellert gaped at him for a minute, and then snorted. Albus gave him a small, sly smile. "Not the answer you were hoping for?"

"...Liar," Gellert muttered a moment later. Albus rolled his eyes, and gazed wordlessly at the fire before them. The flickering of the flames reflected in the half-moon lenses of his eyeglasses, and Gellert watched them for a handful of seconds, growing angry at Albus's placid expression, at how _untouched_ he could be by the world, sometimes. "I _know_ what you want," he hissed quietly.

"Hmm?"

"I said," Gellert said, in a louder voice, "I know what you _want_." He tilted his chin in challenge, squaring his shoulders. Albus didn't move, except to arch a thin eyebrow. The quiet that had existed between them grew darker, menacing.

"I imagine you do, as I've _told_ you before," Albus said back, calmly. "Rather a hollow declaration for you to make, isn't it? ...Unless, of course, this is prelude to another impassioned speech about how you couldn't and how I shouldn't - and how it's the worst crime in the calendar." There was a touch of bitterness in his voice at last, and Gellert latched onto it like a life preserver.

"For someone so good and moral, you certainly - "

"Gellert," Albus interrupted, steel in his voice suddenly, "being an unspeakable does not make me immoral. My only sin is love, and I haven't forced it on anyone. As you well know."

"Yes? Then what do _you_ call these new awkward silences in our conversations, hmm?" Gellert almost singsonged the question, giving Albus a mock-innocent look from beneath dark lashes. "Your increasingly unsubtle allusions? For Merlin's sake, I'd credited you with at least more _creativity_ than you're using, it's almost insulting."

"That's not _fair_ , am I to avoid every reference to the topic for the rest of our lives?" Albus asked, exasperated.

"Well, why not? For daring not speak its name, it certainly does _come up_ quite a bit - "

"Especially since you won't _let it die_ ," Albus snapped back, cheeks flushing and eyes flashing in the firelight as he finally lost his temper, good and proper. Setting his book down forcefully (he wouldn't throw it, it had been his father's), Albus shifted on the sofa, turning towards Gellert. "You talk of increasingly unsubtle allusions but _I'm_ not the one talking about _making do_ with each other and asking what sort of _gift_ you'd like for your birthday, am I?" he asked, slithering forward a little.

Gellert stared at him, mouth open slightly, transfixed. "...You're mad, I'd never allude to anything so depraved."

"Depraved as _what_ , Gellert?" Albus asked, a hand wrapping around his ankle lightly, as he used it to pull himself forward. "You'll have to explain; you see, I've no idea how these things work." Gellert's insides twisted sharply at that - _damn_ Albus for saying it, but the idea of him being quite literally untouched and unspoilt by the world made Gellert's breath come quicker.

Albus tilted his head and raised his eyebrows as he crawled closer on the sofa, curling uncomfortably close around Gellert, the ends of his loose hair brushing across the other boy's waistcoat. "You seem to be the expert, so tell me - what would be suitably sinful?"

Gellert fidgeted, blushing deep red up to his hair, his toes curling a little inside his tailor-made boots as the other boy insinuated himself between his thighs. "...Albus," he whimpered, "this isn't fair."

"Well, what can you expect of a criminally-minded invert?" the older boy hissed back, getting close enough that they could both feel each other's breath on their cheeks. Gellert's senses swam for a moment, at the sudden heat of a body so close to his and at the previously comforting scent of Albus - equal parts cinnamon, old books and older magic. "What fantasies should I be having?" Albus murmured, the tip of his nose _nearly_ touching Gellert's, the whisp and pop of his breath bouncing against the younger boy's lips. Gellert's eyelids fluttered.

"Bastard," he gasped, trying not to shudder or writhe.

"Should I think of kissing you?" Albus suggested, his tone altogether too light and cheery, even as his eyes slid further and further shut. "Keeping that hateful mouth of yours busy with mine?" Albus ducked his head, nearly resting his forehead on Gellert's shoulder, mouth near his ear as he continued. "Or busy with something else entirely?"

Despite his best efforts, Gellert couldn't quite mask the quiet whine he gave, or keep still - his fingers seemed to curl around Albus's arms of their own accord. "God, _shut up_ ," he hissed, shivering at a lock of red hair that fell and brushed its way across his neck.

"What should I do instead of speak?" Albus asked. "As my only options seem to be talking or debauching your poor person, I would have thought you'd be eager to let me keep on." Albus pulled away just enough to look down at Gellert, and chuckled at another shudder the boy gave as hair was dragged across his jaw. "Look at that," he murmured, shifting forward so that their foreheads were inches apart, and his hair fell around them like a curtain, framing both their faces. "Perhaps I should have appealed to your baser instincts, at Christmas, instead of telling you I loved you."

Gellert looked (and felt) a bit hurt at that, and gazed up at him with an injured expression. Albus tilted his head and smiled, wryly. "Would that have been a better gift? My physical self instead of its more permanent counterpart?" He was beginning to sound pensive again, blue eyes going vacant and sad. "Really, Gellert, you're an appalling idiot sometimes - you could have had both."

Gellert's injured expression quickly turned into annoyance, and he glared up at Albus, exasperated. " _I'm_ an appalling idiot? _You've_ got me pinned and wanting and now you're going to orate at me til my _legs_ go numb."

Albus blinked at him, nonplussed. "Have I got you wanting? I didn't think it within my power."

"Yes, well, you underestimate yourself. Are you going to kiss me or are you going to _theorise_ about it some more?" Gellert demanded. "I don't have all evening." And then it was Albus's turn to wear the injured expression as he quickly backed away, brushing his hair off his face as he resumed his position on the far end of the sofa. Gellert gave him a scandalised look, and then heaved a frustrated sigh and followed him, paralleling Albus's earlier movements with his own. "For someone so brilliant, you certainly are thick. I don't know why I put up with it," he groused, making his way across the sofa, smacking at Albus's outside leg til it dangled over the edge of the cushions. He quickly slid into the space he'd created, ignoring Albus's increasingly suspicious looks.

"I love you," Albus said accusingly. "Please don't exploit that for your own amusement."

"Oh, I really _doubt_ I'll be much amused," Gellert grumbled. "Now, you'd better go ahead and kiss me, if you even know _how_. Bloody Hogwarts education, not giving you lot any experience with practical applica - _mmph_ ," he groaned, cut off as he was by the sudden crush of Albus's mouth to his. The kiss was brief, frustratingly chaste, and Gellert shivered as the beginnings of Albus's beard scratched against his chin.

"Merlin," he gasped, as they both broke apart seconds later.

"Gryffindor," Albus reminded him, sounding a tiny bit amused. "Pathologically incapable of refusing any challenge. Now, if you've got that out of your system, perhaps you'll let me up - I should go check on Ariana." He patted Gellert's arm and attempted to wriggle out from underneath the younger boy.

Eyebrows knitting, Gellert frowned and brought his arms closer to Albus's sides, barring his escape. He shook his own overlong hair out of his face, threatening to smile as Albus blew a curl of it away from his nose. "Not just yet."

"Gellert," Albus murmured, rolling his eyes a bit.

"What, _wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied_?" Gellert asked, eyes regaining some of their merriment. Albus snorted, but played along.

" _What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?_ " he muttered, giving Gellert a pointed look. Things were quiet and awkward between them for a moment, and then Albus resumed his struggle to escape, his lips pressed together so tight that they were almost nonexistent. Gellert watched him impassively, and fought his attempts til he'd managed to pin both of Albus's wrists to the sofa.

"Stop," he murmured, his eyes sharp and focused on the boy underneath him. Albus scowled up at him, and tried once more to twist his hands out of Gellert's grip, before exhaling and lying back against the sofa, resigned. Gellert gazed at him a moment more, pensive. "... _The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine_ ," he muttered finally. For a brief handful of seconds, both boys stared at each other, the next line of the scene hovering unspoken between them.

"Oh, _shut up_ ," Albus hissed, eyes glittering with restrained anger. "Let me _up_ , Gellert, that isn't funny."

"I didn't mean it to be," Gellert snapped.

"What _did_ you mean it to be, then?" Albus finally managing to tug a hand free, using it to push against his chest. "Elphias was right, you are cruel to those closest to you."

"...I meant it," Gellert said stiffly, plucking Albus's hand away from his chest, twining those fingers with his own.

"You're attracted to girls," Albus spat. "As you've repeatedly reminded me."

"Well, you _are_ very pretty," Gellert pointed out. "And your hair is quite long. It's easy to see where I might have got confused."

Two bright red spots appeared on Albus's cheeks, and he jerked his hand away from Gellert's grasp, sending it sailing in a backhanded crack against the other boy's jaw. "Leave," he snarled, managing to sit up, pushing himself up against the back of the sofa.

Wide-eyed at the smack, Gellert was still rubbing his cheek as he shook his head, startled at how _hot_ the skin felt under his hand. Still slightly underneath him, Albus was breathing a bit heavily and glaring at him over the rims of his glasses. "... _god_ ," Gellert choked, before he suddenly surged forward, pressing his lips firmly to Albus's.

Predictably, Albus gasped into his mouth and tried to pull away, but Gellert wasn't about to let him retreat - the hand that had been on his own cheek was easily transferred to the back of Albus's neck, and Gellert made a small approving noise deep in his throat as his fingers slid into impossibly soft hair. Albus's lips were thin and dry and hard against his mouth, as they struggled against each other for that first moment. " _Albus_ ," Gellert finally murmured against his unresponsive mouth, trying to hitch him closer.

At that, the other boy whimpered, soft and a bit defeated, and stopped trying to shove away. "Good," Gellert sighed, shifting nearer to him, rubbing a hand comfortingly on his side, thumb sliding over the line of a clothed rib. He kissed the corners of Albus's mouth, licking into them lightly, reveling in the tiny gasp it elicited. The darkness of the room had been encroaching around them as the fire burned down, letting a chill settle in the air. "Kiss me," Gellert ordered quietly, eyes sliding shut in the half-light of the room. Beneath him, Albus shifted and brought a hand up - Gellert wondered idly if he was about to be slapped again - but only plucked his own glasses off his nose, folding them into his palm and draping his arm around Gellert's shoulders as he finally began to kiss back.

The fire died down to glowing embers, unnoticed by the two boys moving slowly together on the sofa. What Albus had initially lacked in enthusiasm, he made up for in thoroughness - he clung tightly to Gellert, legs clamped firmly around his hips, lips open and wet and hot as they pressed kisses to Gellert's cheeks and jaw and neck. "Please," he began, tongue darting against Gellert's skin, making him shudder - but then he seemed to forget his thought, or decide against it, as he craned up to kiss the other boy's lips til they were red and raw.

Gellert felt distinctly lightheaded, and he wondered if perhaps Albus was attempting surreptitious Legilimency. Beneath him, Albus was beginning to squirm a little, and he choked as he felt the back of one shin hook around his thigh, tugging him tighter in. Albus arched under him, letting Gellert get an arm entirely around him, and as they twined closer together the kisses became messier, more desperate. "Oh _yes_ ," Gellert groaned, as Albus fisted both hands in his hair, ungently.

"Shhh. Ariana," Albus reminded him, though he did drop his glasses onto the floor and put his hand back in Gellert's hair, fingers sliding roughly through curls as he dived back in for another prolonged kiss. The inside of Albus's mouth was slick and warm, and he made the most _delicious_ noises when Gellert slid his tongue along his teeth - Gellert shuddered silently and hauled him up closer, tucking them tight together against the corner of the sofa as he began to just _barely_ rock his hips.

" _Gellert_ ," Albus gasped, sounding shocked but not protesting. A hand slid out of his hair, down enough to splay on his back as he surged forward, and Gellert ducked his head to attack the side of Albus's neck. "Oh, Merlin," Albus groaned, louder than Gellert had just a moment before, and both boys began giggling quietly afterwards, even as Albus helped him undo the fiddly row of buttons hiding his own collarbones. He shuddered and squeezed his legs around Gellert's waist at the first touch of tongue to skin there, and tilted his chin helpfully as he moved his hips with the younger boy's.

Despite the coolness of the room, both boys were flushed and panting by the time they broke apart, gazing at each other wide-eyed in the dim light of the hearth. Gellert gazed, open-mouthed, at the series of bitemarks he'd left like a necklace on Albus's skin; and at the way Albus was watching him, awed. "Merlin." His hips snapped forward of their own accord, and he let out a small groan - not only at the friction of Albus's thigh against him, but at the way Albus's eyelids fluttered, and at the way he bit his lip because of it.

"Don't _stop_ ," Albus murmured, cheeks flushing darker, embarrassed. Gellert made an equally embarrassing whining sound, and pulled back perversely - not to humiliate him, but to rearrange their legs, til he'd managed to get one of Albus's thighs between his own.

"All right?" he rasped, waiting only for Albus to nod before pulling him in with one hand, and rolling his hips in demonstration. Albus shuddered and clutched at him, tugging him in tight and then tighter as they began to rock against each other. Gellert rolled them til they were both on their sides, Albus's back pressed firmly against the back of the sofa, the two of them writhing against each other almost mindlessly as they found a rhythm that worked.

Albus whimpered and twisted his hand in the back of Gellert's waistcoat, gasping open-mouthed when the younger boy reached up to grab the top of the sofa for more leverage, using it to thrust harder against him. He squeezed the thigh tight between his knees, twisting his hips in stuttered circles as he realised that the hardness he could feel against his hipbone _must_ have been Gellert. "Wait, I want - " he started, but trailed off with a groan as Gellert managed to untuck his shirt and slide a hand over his bare back. Not to be outdone, Albus managed to wandlessly unfasten the buttons to Gellert's waistcoat and shirt, and he slid his hand over the flushed skin there.

"No, like this," Gellert ground out, muffling a groan by biting at the side of Albus's pale neck, using the hand on his back to press them tight together. Albus shuddered and complied, curling around Gellert even tighter, pressing his mouth to the other boy's shoulder as they drove each other closer and closer towards completion, the sofa being jostled a few inches closer to the fire.

Albus's legs began to twitch as he got close - his hands shaking a bit, he buried his face in the crook of Gellert's neck and managed to slide the hand on the boy's chest lower, over the prominent bulge in his trousers. Gellert whined, high and needy, as Albus pressed the heel of his palm against the base of his cock, and he couldn't help fucking up into the loose grasp of his hand. Somehow, within seconds, Albus managed to get his trousers unfastened, and Gellert nearly convulsed as he felt long, cool fingers close over him. "Yes, _please_ ," Albus hissed, voice ragged and desperate, "please, I want to feel you - " and that was all it took. The twinge of shame and _need_ in Albus's voice drove Gellert to his peak, and he barely managed to muffle his own shocked groan in Albus's shoulder as he suddenly spurted, wetting his trousers and his own belly and Albus's hand, wracking against him.

"... _oh_ , Merlin," he heard Albus whimper seconds later, seemingly from a great distance as he slowly came down. Albus's movements against him had become arrhythmic and stuttered, and despite his own lightheadedness, Gellert shifted to press his hand against Albus's trousers firmly, smiling tiredly at the other boy's gasp, craning up to kiss Albus deeply and rock against him one more time.

Albus tensed and arched into his grip, breath dying against Gellert's lips in the two seconds before he came, shaking and clinging to him and smothering a cry against his mouth. Gellert's eyelids fluttered lazily as he felt a damp warmth spreading in the fabric underneath his hand, and he shivered as he pulled Albus closer, tugged the still-trembling boy into a tight embrace.

"...Well," he mumbled after a moment, when their breathing was approaching normal again.

Still nestled against him, Albus snorted. "Yes."

Blinking his eyes all the way open, Gellert tilted his head back to give him a wry grin. "Better than a pair of warm socks, I imagine."

Albus raised an eyebrow at him. "Warm socks wouldn't be as messy," he pointed out, shifting to try to pull himself up into sitting on the sofa again. Gellert let him go, and helped him sit up, a hand on his back.

"True," he conceded, sitting up, himself. A small thump against the ceiling drew both of their gazes upward - Albus winced and began to look guilty.

"I'd better go see what she's up to," he murmured, tucking a few errant pieces of hair behind his ear, only noticing afterwards that it was still wet with Gellert's come. He flushed again, and muttered a few cleaning charms over them both. "...Will you stay, til I come back?"

Buttoning up his shirt again, Gellert didn't bother to look up as he nodded. "Yes, of course."

Albus looked relieved, and nodded too. "Good. ...Darling boy," he said fondly, not seeming to notice how Gellert's eye twitched at that. "Won't be a moment," he said, starting for the door.

"All right," Gellert murmured, frowning as he noticed that there was a button missing from his waistcoat. Albus paused at the door, and watched him (and subtly put the missing button in his own shirt pocket).

"I do love you," he reiterated, nerves beginning to reassert themselves in his stomach. Gellert glanced up, and gave him a secret, crooked smile.

"I know, _kedvesem_. Happy birthday."

Pleased, Albus closed the door behind him. Gellert's smile slowly faded, and he waited for the sound of Albus's footsteps at the top of the stairs, before Disapparating away.


End file.
